"I want to produce moviemakers."

Matt Irvine minces no words about his goals for one of DePaul University’s newest academic programs, with good reason. DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) will introduce the Midwest’s first graduate degree programs in digital cinema this fall. Starting in September, students will be able to choose from a Master of Science degree program or a Master of Fine Arts degree in the cutting-edge field.

Irvine, the director of the program, notes that the program’s curriculum was carefully constructed after consultation with companies and experts in the industry and their expected needs for the future. Traditional forms of film production are slowly falling by the wayside, and offering a higher level of study was a natural step based on the tremendous response to DePaul’s undergraduate degrees in digital cinema.

"Digital is the way modern movies are being made," Irvine said. "These new programs will provide the extra depth of skills so that graduates can go out and create new works and find careers in a variety of media fields: from movie production to advertising, to computer graphics, animation and gaming."

While both programs will have a core of digital cinema and computer science classes, they differ in that the Master of Science program emphasizes technical skills, while the Master of Fine Arts will focus on creative development and digital storytelling. Principles of digital effects, digital modeling, and post-production are other areas of emphasis.

Both programs offer students the unique opportunity and resources to make a full-length feature film before graduating, as opposed to a short, giving graduates a leg up in terms of experience over most traditional film school grads. In addition, the programs aim to prepare students for the business side of the motion picture industry, with courses on producing, attracting investors, and budgeting for movies and other projects.

While that seems like a full plate of skills, Irvine has even a loftier side effect in mind resulting from these new programs. A passionate scholar of Chicago’s rich heritage in the early film industry, Irvine sees DePaul’s new program playing a role in restoring that heritage to its former glory.

"Chicago’s a huge city, but the film community is small here, and it wasn’t always that way," he said. "Having more directors and producers here will mean that more people will be able to shoot movies here in their entirety, using Chicago money and Chicago talent. If you do that, you will build up the film community again."

DePaul launched the Digital Cinema Program – the most comprehensive of its kind, representing a convergence of cinema, technology, animation and gaming – in 2004 with two bachelor’s degree programs. To date, the university has invested more than $3 million in the program’s high-tech production capabilities.

DePaul CTI is one of the most innovative and wide-ranging computer science programs in the country. The undergraduate program enrolls 1,200 students and offers 11 different degrees. More than 2,130 students are enrolled in its 17 graduate programs. CTI also features a doctoral degree program in computer science.

Enrollment for the fall quarter is still open. For more information, visit the Digital Cinema Web site at: http://www.cti.depaul.edu/digitalcinema/.